51³ÉÈ˵¼º½

During our Christmas Cafelingo, we welcomed 38 members on Zoom who joined us from the UK, Brazil, Canada, France, Netherlands, US, Portugal, Hungary and Switzerland. The event ran smoothly,  starting with a quick introduction by everyone, two opportunities to join language breakout rooms and a final wrap up where everyone shared their experiences. The groups in the language rooms were small enough to allow everyone to get involved in the conversation. Language hosts used an advent calendar with Christmas-related questions to break the ice and bring up interesting topics we all know about to practise our languages as fluently as possible.  

Apart from the languages practised: Italian, Spanish, French, German, Arabic and Portuguese; a great discussion at the end enriched the experience of learning about other cultures such as those Christmas traditions from Greece or the Netherlands. All cafelinguists wished each other the best for this coming year and we took a festive group photo. On the whole, it was a successful event with great attendance and a truly lovely atmosphere.Ìý

Welcome to Christmas Cafe Lingo! After the success of Cafe Lingo #1, the Midlands Network is offering all members and family another chance to practise your languages while socializing with a Christmas-oriented online café. You can choose to join up to two of these language rooms: Polish, Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish, Italian, German, PortugueseÌý²¹²Ô»åÌýFrench! Please join us for an informal and fun chat on Sunday 13 December at 5pm.Ìý

5:00 - 5:10: Introductions (in English!) 

5:10 - 5:40: First language room practice 

5:40 - 5:45: Break 

5:45 - 6:15: Second language room practice 

6:15 - 6:30: Sharing experiences and close 

You don’t need to be working with these languages or be a native to join, feel free to come along with any level of expertise. You can either join two different language sessions or keep practising the same language for the whole event.

Each room will have a host who will engage you in topics such as: 

• Days of celebration in Christmas 
• Christmas vocabulary difficult (or not) to translate  
• Meaning of decorations  
• Food and drink: Christmas in five senses.Ìý
• Figures and characters (the Three Wise Men, la Befana, Weihnachtsmann…) 
• Influences from other countries and variations across countries sharing the same language 

Please email midlands@ciol.org.ukÌý³Ù´ÇÌýbook your place. Let us know which language room(s) you are interested in joining and you will be sent the Zoom link for the event.Ìý